Despite frequent attempts over many years, the elusive first stars of the Universe have yet to be found. Searches for these "Population III" objects have targeted the old and metal-poor Galactic halo. However according to models of the formation of galaxies like the Milky Way, the oldest stars should lie in the centre of the Galaxy - in the bulge.
Until now, problems with overcrowding and extinction have made searching the bulge an impossible task; the most metal-poor star previously known has [Fe/H]=-2.1. Our dedicated search, using SkyMapper photometry to pre-select low metallicity candidates, will discover >100 bulge stars with [Fe/H]<-3, all confirmed using AAOmega on the AAT.
Here we present the first results of the ongoing survey: >2000 stars with [Fe/H]<-1, and from the pilot study, high-resolution spectroscopy of 12 stars (8 with MIKE on Magellan, and 4 as part of the Gaia-ESO survey using FLAMES UVES on the VLT). These high-resolution data have confirmed the discovery of the bulge's most metal-poor stars yet. They have allowed us to derive detailed chemical abundances of these stars, including alpha and s-process elements, which we have compared to the other components of the Galaxy. At the time of writing, we are currently following up another 8000 candidates with 9 nights at the AAT, the exciting results of which will be described on our poster!